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Thief 2 crashing

I haven't be able to play for some time, and now with my new HP HDX 18 laptop with windows 7 , I was finely able to play T Deadly Shadows .

now, i'd like to play FM's I've missed out on . but thief 2 keeps crashing with in seconds. just freezes up solid and I have to use task mgr. to shut down. IS THERE ANY HELP OUT THERE 4 ME ???
IF SO E-MAIL ME AT removed and any feed back will be welcome, Thanks Taffers.

Last edited by Nightwalker; 21st Mar 2011 at 10:14.
Reason: removed email address. It's not good to post it publicly as you pick up spam.

Long ago I believe it was NV who told me that v1.18 is flaky in its application, so he suggested that I run it as a mod. So I extracted the files from the "v1.18 Premier patch" (mesh.crf, obj.crf, snd.crf, strings.crf) to thief2\RES\patch and modified resname_base line in my darkinst.cfg so that the patch directory overrides the contents of RES.

resname_base .\NTEXdds+.\EP+.\NTEX+.\PermanentMods\+.\res\patch+.\res

Here's my question, would this setup override any of the fixes done to models, missions, meshes, etc applied by Tafferpatcher?

Long ago I believe it was NV who told me that v1.18 is flaky in its application, so he suggested that I run it as a mod. So I extracted the files from the "v1.18 Premier patch" (mesh.crf, obj.crf, snd.crf, strings.crf) to thief2\RES\patch and modified resname_base line in my darkinst.cfg so that the patch directory overrides the contents of RES.

resname_base .\NTEXdds+.\EP+.\NTEX+.\PermanentMods\+.\res\patch+.\res

Here's my question, would this setup override any of the fixes done to models, missions, meshes, etc applied by Tafferpatcher?

Thanks in advance.

1. First of all, Premier Patch is not a complete pack. It was supposed to add files that wouldn't be installed by original Patch-1.18 due to thief2.exe CRC check error. So at least it doesn't contain updated versions of DARK.GAM and GEN.OSM. And these files are extensively checked by Tafferpatcher to determine if the game is correctly patched. Correct versions of these files are:

So did any of these "other optional resource patches" get applied to the contents of those four CRF files (mesh.crf, obj.crf, snd.crf, strings.crf)?

Well, I see 3 possibilities here.

1. There are same files as those to be patched in one of your custom folders. Then, the Patcher will find them first and replace them, the game will use them.

2. There are such files in your custom files at all. The Patcher will find original files in RES\*.CRF and replace them, so the game will use them since they are not overridden by anything.

3. There are files with the same names in custom folders, but they differ from originals (already patched, or modified somehow). The Patcher will skip them, search further and replace the original ones. The game will still use modified files from custom folders.

The 3rd possibility seems very unlikely (patch 1.18 surely doesn't contain them), and if it occurs, there are great chances that modified files are already fixed properly, so you won't see any difference.

How to use Tafferpatcher

Hi
I've looked around for a while and don't see instructions on * how to use Tafferpatcher *.
Do I install it before I install Thief 2, i.e. before i even slide in the disc? - or after? Do I install it to the same folder name that Thief 2 will want to load into, i.e. Program Files\Thief 2? Does it reguire other fixes or patches be made first? Is there a users guide of some sort?

We've been playing thief for 10 years and love it and are loving the fan missions too. Would love to have the benefits Tafferpatcher offers!
Thanks !!!!
Zathras

Tafferpatcher does not require an installation of itself and can be run from any place. The message on the first page may be confusing as I didn't know how to change it at that time. Actually, it asks you to specify the folder where Thief2 is installed or should be installed. If you point to the empty folder, the program will ask you for an installation CD to install the game. If you point it to the existing installation, it will proceed with it. I think it's better to use an original installer if it works in your system though, as your distribution CDs may have differences which Tafferpatcher is unaware of. No additional patches are required to be installed before running Tafferpatcher. No need to run Thief2 for the first time before running Tafferpatcher too.

running Tafferpatcher

Thank for the reply, DJ Riff.
Ok, so I got the patcher to start running then at the end it stopped with a message something like "Unable to update executable files. Make sure you have access rights and try again" - which I should have cuz I am the administrator. Could this have been cause by my anti-virus, or software firewall?
It looks like some updates took. There is a BACKUP folder and a Tafferpatcher.ini with this:
[COMPONENTS]
ddfix=installed
stm=installed
ssch=installed
obj_patch\fixedferns=installed
obj_patch\fixedgasarrow=installed
obj_patch\fixedmecgas=installed
obj_patch\fixedvinearrow=installed
miss_patch\miss01fix=installed
miss_patch\miss02fix=installed
miss_patch\miss11fix=installed
miss_patch\miss13fix=installed
miss_patch\miss15fix=installed
[SETTINGS]
width=1280
height=1024
FOV=100

Anyway, now when I try to run Tafferpatcher again, it says, 'Unable to execute file in temporary directory. Setup aborted. Error 5. Access denied.
Any suggestions?
Thanks again -

"Unable to update executable files. Make sure you have access rights and try again" - which I should have cuz I am the administrator. Could this have been cause by my anti-virus, or software firewall?

Antivirus — maybe, firewall — unlikely. If you have Vista or Win7, then to run Patcher with Administrator rights, you need to right-click on it and choose "Run as Administrator" from the context menu (yes, these new systems are that paranoid). Do not install Thief into Program Files folder as OS may protect executable files in it from being modified.

Originally Posted by Mr. headbone

Will the latest version of DDFix ( as of this writing it's 1.5.5) be incorporated into TafferPatcher?
I've read currently it's version 1.4.4

It will, of course. For now, installed DDFix can be updated by replacing ddfix.dll and ddfix.ini files with new ones. Just enter your resolution in ddfix.ini and that's it.

Windows isn't paranoid enough. My Ubuntu system I can let someone use my account without worrying about it. They cant do anything to harm my system without using my password.
Windows on the other hand they could destroy it easily if I logged into my administrator account and walk away for some reason without locking it.

That's why I don't use an administrator account for normal usage though. I would rather be slightly annoyed and be safer.

No. It's not safe enough, but is annoyingly paranoid at the same time. In Linux, you rarely need to log in as root permanently. In Windows, there are several operations that can't work under Run As (either it they can't be started by User at all or rights are not inherited properly). But instead of fixing these issues and making running under User with temporary Admin sessions more comfortable, they encourage users to log in as Admin by default but then put silly limitations on Admin account.

How to use TafferPatcher

Yes, Ok . Reran it with (in XP) right-click "Run as..." -then later it radio-button asks for Administrator+password, and it installed fine. I entered the folder name where my Thief2 was installed and all is good. Thanks DJRiff.

When I install fan missions (to a different folder), I assume I can re-run specifying that FM folder, yes?

I hope to try this on Thieves Highway - a great mission with less than great skies.

Yes, Ok . Reran it with (in XP) right-click "Run as..." -then later it radio-button asks for Administrator+password, and it installed fine. I entered the folder name where my Thief2 was installed and all is good. Thanks DJRiff.

When I install fan missions (to a different folder), I assume I can re-run specifying that FM folder, yes?

I hope to try this on Thieves Highway - a great mission with less than great skies.

You need to use Darkloader or GarretLoader to run missions. This is for installing the game not missions. I suggest Darkloader.

Originally Posted by DJ Riff

No. It's not safe enough, but is annoyingly paranoid at the same time. In Linux, you rarely need to log in as root permanently. In Windows, there are several operations that can't work under Run As (either it they can't be started by User at all or rights are not inherited properly). But instead of fixing these issues and making running under User with temporary Admin sessions more comfortable, they encourage users to log in as Admin by default but then put silly limitations on Admin account.

I completely agree. It is painful in the extreme to run a non administrator account on windows if you do anything other then write documents. At least with older programs anyway.
I still use a regular user account though for as much as I can do.
I would ditch windows forever if I didnt need it to game.